Our second to last meeting before Christmas. The entire meeting was spent planning the main challenge. Working on ideas for the optical illusion, the revealer set pieces, and the secret that has to be revealed as part of the story. Much was accomplished but much still remains. Assignments were given to each team member, they are to bring their items to next weeks meeting so the team can stay on schedule. If we are as far as I hope we are after the next meeting we will probably start some longer weekend meetings after the holidays.
The team has stated their goal is to go to state and possibly beyond this year. To help them with this goal I plan to be more critical of things this season than I have been in the past. If I think their solutions don't make sense or are not as good as they could be I'm going to tell them. I won't interfere (I take that rule very seriously) but I will try to help them not settle for the first thing they decide on.
I had a fun holiday instant challenge planned for today but we just ran out of time so I will save it for next week. We'll start with the instant challenge next week so we are sure to fit it in. Please try to get your student to school on time so we can get started right away.
Don't forget our upcoming meeting schedule. Next week (12/19) will be our last meeting of the year. Meetings will resume Wednesday January 2nd at 7:30am.
The pictures from this week attempt to capture the thinking of the team. Here are the assignments for next week.
Write Script - Katie/Erin
Plan Costumes - Corrin
Sets Designs - Tamera/Corrin
Design Revealer Pieces - Klayton/Thalia
Optical Illusions Design - Austin
I'm not sure how Corrin ended up with two things, maybe she and Tamera can work on costumes and sets together.
Please remind your DI'er what they committed to work on for next week.
That's all for this week.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
Meeting #8 - 12/5/07
We started the meeting with a quick little warm up exercise. Popsicle sticks were arranged in a math equation reading 1+1=6. The challenge is to move one Popsicle stick to make the equation true. There is one "right" answer and several other answers that also work. The team hit on a couple of the answers right away and eventually got all of the known solutions.
Next we moved on to working on the main challenge. After some bizarre departures from their original idea involving wallpaper stores the skeleton of the story started to take shape. The team began laying out the general outline for the story and started to identify the main elements of the challenge and possibly even identified one of the two required side trips.
The pictures I added to the album this week are relatively boring, mainly just capturing the ideas we wrote on the board. Next week we'll continue working on the overall story and probably do one quick Instant Challenge. My goal for the team is for them to have the story roughed out enough by the holidays so they can start working on sets, detailed script writing, and rehearsing after the holidays.
Next we moved on to working on the main challenge. After some bizarre departures from their original idea involving wallpaper stores the skeleton of the story started to take shape. The team began laying out the general outline for the story and started to identify the main elements of the challenge and possibly even identified one of the two required side trips.
The pictures I added to the album this week are relatively boring, mainly just capturing the ideas we wrote on the board. Next week we'll continue working on the overall story and probably do one quick Instant Challenge. My goal for the team is for them to have the story roughed out enough by the holidays so they can start working on sets, detailed script writing, and rehearsing after the holidays.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Meeting #7 - 11/28/07
This morning we started with a new improv game I learned called trio. It's a fun game, the person stands in a circle and strikes a pose and says "I am a " basically fill in the blank with what the person is supposed to be, for example a fork. Next another person enters the circle and strikes a pose of something related to the first thing, for example a spoon, finally a third person enters the circle and strikes a pose of another related object and states what they are, for example a knife. The first two people to enter the circle now leave and the last person holds the same pose but says something completely different, in this example instead of saying "I am a knife" the person might say "I am a flagpole". Then play continues with people jumping into the circle being something relating to a flagpole. It was a fun, fairly fast paced warm up game. Most of the new pictures in the album this week are pictures of the team playing this game.
Next we discussed our main challenge more reading through more of the detail, discussing where the points were, and the main concepts the team is working on. There are ideas slowly starting to take shape that we will hopefully fill out some more over the next couple of weeks leading up to the holidays. If most of the ideas are pretty well figured out and they team is in a position to start building sets, etc. we may start having weekend meetings early next year.
Next we discussed our main challenge more reading through more of the detail, discussing where the points were, and the main concepts the team is working on. There are ideas slowly starting to take shape that we will hopefully fill out some more over the next couple of weeks leading up to the holidays. If most of the ideas are pretty well figured out and they team is in a position to start building sets, etc. we may start having weekend meetings early next year.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Meeting #6 - 11/21/07
At our meeting we did a turkey bowling IC (see poem below), reviewed the illusions team members brought in and talked a little bit about the main challenge for the year. The school halls were buzzing with excitement since it was the half day before Thanksgiving so we headed to the cafeteria for an instant challenge. To be a little different I wrote a quick poem about the meeting below...
'Twas the day before Thanksgiving and all through the school
All of the children were wild, and thought they were cool
The challenges were ready for ASDI
All they needed to do was give them a try
To the cafeteria they headed with joy and some glee
and then discovered they would be bowling with a turkey
Not actually a turkey, a rubber ball instead
But this is not a problem if you have a DI head
Launch it from a contraption, knock down the dominoes
(We used dominoes for pins don't ya know!)
Split into two teams, they began the game
In the end the scores were the same
Enough for now the TM said with a last rhyme
Happy Thanksgiving to all until next time
You will notice there is now a slide show with all of the teams pictures in the upper right hand corner of the blog. You can click on a picture to launch the photo album or click through or pause the picture with the controls that appear if you hover your mouse over the photo album.
'Twas the day before Thanksgiving and all through the school
All of the children were wild, and thought they were cool
The challenges were ready for ASDI
All they needed to do was give them a try
To the cafeteria they headed with joy and some glee
and then discovered they would be bowling with a turkey
Not actually a turkey, a rubber ball instead
But this is not a problem if you have a DI head
Launch it from a contraption, knock down the dominoes
(We used dominoes for pins don't ya know!)
Split into two teams, they began the game
In the end the scores were the same
Enough for now the TM said with a last rhyme
Happy Thanksgiving to all until next time
You will notice there is now a slide show with all of the teams pictures in the upper right hand corner of the blog. You can click on a picture to launch the photo album or click through or pause the picture with the controls that appear if you hover your mouse over the photo album.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Meeting #5 - 11/14/07
I'm a little late on the blog this week!
During our meeting Wednesday morning we reviewed the ideas the team members came up with for the "DI've Got a Secret" challenge. None of the ideas really stuck and the team decided to revert back to the original idea they had the week prior involving a museum theft and investigation. For next week's meeting each team member was tasked with bringing in an example of an optical illusion. An optical illusion must be present in their performance.
Next we spent a little time talking about goals. Goals for the season ranged from wanting to do better than their team did last year to reaching state and or globals. Next week we will talk a little bit about what they think they need to do to reach those goals and possibly start some planning on how to get there.
We tried to squeeze in an IC (Instant Challenge) but ran out of time before it could be completed. The team's task was to develop a brand new Olympic sport for the 2008 games in Bejiing. You can read the entire challenge here. Unfortunately we ran out of time before the team could finish their presentation of the sport they created. They got far enough where I know it involved balloons, a maze, and spectators were able to watch by walking above the maze on a glass floor.
That is all for this week, be sure to check out the photo album below for the latest pictures.
We will have a meeting next week, even thought it's a 1/2 day.
Thanks,
Mr. H
During our meeting Wednesday morning we reviewed the ideas the team members came up with for the "DI've Got a Secret" challenge. None of the ideas really stuck and the team decided to revert back to the original idea they had the week prior involving a museum theft and investigation. For next week's meeting each team member was tasked with bringing in an example of an optical illusion. An optical illusion must be present in their performance.
Next we spent a little time talking about goals. Goals for the season ranged from wanting to do better than their team did last year to reaching state and or globals. Next week we will talk a little bit about what they think they need to do to reach those goals and possibly start some planning on how to get there.
We tried to squeeze in an IC (Instant Challenge) but ran out of time before it could be completed. The team's task was to develop a brand new Olympic sport for the 2008 games in Bejiing. You can read the entire challenge here. Unfortunately we ran out of time before the team could finish their presentation of the sport they created. They got far enough where I know it involved balloons, a maze, and spectators were able to watch by walking above the maze on a glass floor.
That is all for this week, be sure to check out the photo album below for the latest pictures.
We will have a meeting next week, even thought it's a 1/2 day.
Thanks,
Mr. H
 |
| ASDI |
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Meeting #4 - 11/7/07
I hope everyone had fun at the egg event this weekend. If you would like to see some pictures from the event check out the link below...
Egg Event Album Link
We also had some nice coverage from Channel 5. In case you missed the coverage I recorded it and posted it to youtube, you can watch it at the link below...
Egg Event Video Link
I was amazed that ASDI's relatively simple egg contraption successfully protected all three eggs! I believe this was the only middle school contraption to have three eggs survive.
At this mornings meeting we concentrated mostly on selecting our main challenge for the season. We started the morning with three challenges remaining, A, B, & C. The team quickly eliminated challenge A as an option leaving only challenge B & C. A quick vote revealed things were pretty evenly split between the two possibilities so team members who voted for B brainstormed possible ideas for that challenge and likewise with team members who voted for challenge C. In the end challenge C became a near unanimous selection. The name of challenge C is "DI've got a secret" - it's a neat challenge involving creating a story about a secret. There has to be a character in the story who appears to be one thing but is actually another. The story must also integrate an optical illusion and the team must create three set pieces that are joined together to create a new different set piece.
We also attempted a brief instant challenge but ran out of time before we could really do it justice. Next week we will talk more about our main challenge and probably do another instant challenge.
Even though the team had a decent start on an idea for the story line of the main challenge they were given an assignment for the next meeting to come prepared with another different idea to review with the team.
Check out the link to the photo album below for the latest team pictures.
Have a good week,
Mr. H
Egg Event Album Link
We also had some nice coverage from Channel 5. In case you missed the coverage I recorded it and posted it to youtube, you can watch it at the link below...
Egg Event Video Link
I was amazed that ASDI's relatively simple egg contraption successfully protected all three eggs! I believe this was the only middle school contraption to have three eggs survive.
At this mornings meeting we concentrated mostly on selecting our main challenge for the season. We started the morning with three challenges remaining, A, B, & C. The team quickly eliminated challenge A as an option leaving only challenge B & C. A quick vote revealed things were pretty evenly split between the two possibilities so team members who voted for B brainstormed possible ideas for that challenge and likewise with team members who voted for challenge C. In the end challenge C became a near unanimous selection. The name of challenge C is "DI've got a secret" - it's a neat challenge involving creating a story about a secret. There has to be a character in the story who appears to be one thing but is actually another. The story must also integrate an optical illusion and the team must create three set pieces that are joined together to create a new different set piece.
We also attempted a brief instant challenge but ran out of time before we could really do it justice. Next week we will talk more about our main challenge and probably do another instant challenge.
Even though the team had a decent start on an idea for the story line of the main challenge they were given an assignment for the next meeting to come prepared with another different idea to review with the team.
Check out the link to the photo album below for the latest team pictures.
Have a good week,
Mr. H
|
| ASDI |
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Meeting #3 - 10/31/07
Happy Halloween!
Here is the quick synopsis of our meeting this morning...
For some strange reason the team decided to torture their egg device some more, they kicked it, threw it, bumped it, set it, punted it, and finally the top came off and the eggs spilled out, and one broke. They put it all back together, we'll see how it does Saturday.
We made our first attempt at selecting a main challenge for the year. A challenge wasn't selected but the team did decide what they don't want to do. They don't want to do Challenge E (Switch - basically building a structure to see how much weight it will hold), and they don't want to do Challenge D (Chorific - this is the improv challenge for this season). That leaves three choices Challenge A, B, & C. We'll work more trying to select a challenge next week.
Time was rapidly running short so we quickly moved into an Instant Challenge. The challenge was called Halloween newscast. I gave the team the option of breaking into two groups and working on the challenge separately or working in one big group. They decided to split up. For the challenge they had to enact a Halloween newscast where the anchors, weatherperson, and sports person needed to have all of their stories relate to Halloween in some way. Each group had five minutes to prepare and 2 minutes and 30 seconds of "air time" to broadcast the result.
At long last the egg challenge is upon us. The event is this Saturday, November 3rd at 10:00am in the school parking lot. The mystery of what will happen to the eggs this year will finally be revealed! Hopefully your candy bar sales are going well. If you've sold all of your candy bars please bring your money to the egg event so we can get it to Denise who has been coordinating this fun fundraising effort. Even if you still have a few candy bars left you could still bring your money along and trust you will sell the ones you have remaining. If you haven't been able to sell all of yours you can also bring your unsold candy bars and the money from the bars you have sold.
See you at the egg event Saturday,
Mr. H.
p.s. Of course I took some pictures this morning, see the link to the photo album below.
Here is the quick synopsis of our meeting this morning...
For some strange reason the team decided to torture their egg device some more, they kicked it, threw it, bumped it, set it, punted it, and finally the top came off and the eggs spilled out, and one broke. They put it all back together, we'll see how it does Saturday.
We made our first attempt at selecting a main challenge for the year. A challenge wasn't selected but the team did decide what they don't want to do. They don't want to do Challenge E (Switch - basically building a structure to see how much weight it will hold), and they don't want to do Challenge D (Chorific - this is the improv challenge for this season). That leaves three choices Challenge A, B, & C. We'll work more trying to select a challenge next week.
Time was rapidly running short so we quickly moved into an Instant Challenge. The challenge was called Halloween newscast. I gave the team the option of breaking into two groups and working on the challenge separately or working in one big group. They decided to split up. For the challenge they had to enact a Halloween newscast where the anchors, weatherperson, and sports person needed to have all of their stories relate to Halloween in some way. Each group had five minutes to prepare and 2 minutes and 30 seconds of "air time" to broadcast the result.
At long last the egg challenge is upon us. The event is this Saturday, November 3rd at 10:00am in the school parking lot. The mystery of what will happen to the eggs this year will finally be revealed! Hopefully your candy bar sales are going well. If you've sold all of your candy bars please bring your money to the egg event so we can get it to Denise who has been coordinating this fun fundraising effort. Even if you still have a few candy bars left you could still bring your money along and trust you will sell the ones you have remaining. If you haven't been able to sell all of yours you can also bring your unsold candy bars and the money from the bars you have sold.
See you at the egg event Saturday,
Mr. H.
p.s. Of course I took some pictures this morning, see the link to the photo album below.
|
| ASDI |
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Meeting #2 - 10/24/07
Meeting #2 got underway this morning with the team attacking their egg challenge. The team quickly assembled a 3 egg contraption that was looking promising. After reviewing the rules and looking closer they realized it was bigger than was allowed. They started eying up one of the boxes I had brought along with instant challenge supplies so I swapped with them and they repacked their eggs. A couple of test journeys (they dropped the eggs) and they were satisfied with the results.
Next we moved onto an instant challenge. The challenge involved designing, prototyping, and presenting a way to evacuate astronauts from the top of a launch pad in the event of an emergency (you can read the full challenge here if you really are curious). Overall the team did a nice job on the challenge. You can check out the pictures of their solution at the link to the photo album below.
Since the team seems pretty satisfied with their egg protection device we will probably do another instant challenge next week and start trying to select our main challenge for the year.
Please remember to send along $25 if you haven't paid your DI dues yet.
Don't forget the egg drop is fast approaching (November 3rd). The final details and time will be communicated soon.
If you ever have any questions please let me know.
Until next week,
Mr. H
Next we moved onto an instant challenge. The challenge involved designing, prototyping, and presenting a way to evacuate astronauts from the top of a launch pad in the event of an emergency (you can read the full challenge here if you really are curious). Overall the team did a nice job on the challenge. You can check out the pictures of their solution at the link to the photo album below.
Since the team seems pretty satisfied with their egg protection device we will probably do another instant challenge next week and start trying to select our main challenge for the year.
Please remember to send along $25 if you haven't paid your DI dues yet.
Don't forget the egg drop is fast approaching (November 3rd). The final details and time will be communicated soon.
If you ever have any questions please let me know.
Until next week,
Mr. H
|
| ASDI |
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Meeting #1 - 10/17/08
One meeting down, who knows how many more to go :-)
This morning we discussed the upcoming egg event (November 3rd - mark your calendar). The rules of this years challenge were revealed and speculation/planning began. Next week everyone has materials they are supposed to be bringing along so please check with your DI'er and pester them about gathering and bringing their supplies. With the egg event approaching so rapidly we will decide after next weeks meeting if we need to schedule an additional weekend meeting to finish preparations.
Speaking of meeting times I was planning on meeting Wednesday mornings every week. Please let me know if you have any major conflicts with that.
We also briefly discussed team names, many ideas were generated but nothing really stuck. Here are some examples:
-The Froot Loops
-All Star DI'ers (I've abbreviated this ASDI and named the blog this for now)
-Something to do with bananas (I can't remember what word they paired with banana)
-Oompa Loompas
-Sloop Dog the Avenger
We also did a brief instant challenge. The challenge was a take off on a classic puzzle called the farmer, the fox, the chicken, and the corn. The farmer has to cross a river in a row boat. There is only enough room in the row boat for him and one other item (the fox, the chicken, or the corn). If the farmer leaves the fox and chicken alone the fox will eat the chicken, if he leaves the chicken and the corn alone with chicken will eat the corn. How can the farmer get everything across the river? This is a fun little challenge, label some pieces of paper and see if you can figure it out. After a couple of small hints we finally figured it out.
Next week we will work a lot on our egg contraption but I will also bring an instant challenge along. We didn't have any serious discussions about a main challenge selection for the season, we probably won't get too deep into that until after the egg event.
I took a couple of pictures (see link below) of the newly formed team.
That is all for this week,
Mr. H
This morning we discussed the upcoming egg event (November 3rd - mark your calendar). The rules of this years challenge were revealed and speculation/planning began. Next week everyone has materials they are supposed to be bringing along so please check with your DI'er and pester them about gathering and bringing their supplies. With the egg event approaching so rapidly we will decide after next weeks meeting if we need to schedule an additional weekend meeting to finish preparations.
Speaking of meeting times I was planning on meeting Wednesday mornings every week. Please let me know if you have any major conflicts with that.
We also briefly discussed team names, many ideas were generated but nothing really stuck. Here are some examples:
-The Froot Loops
-All Star DI'ers (I've abbreviated this ASDI and named the blog this for now)
-Something to do with bananas (I can't remember what word they paired with banana)
-Oompa Loompas
-Sloop Dog the Avenger
We also did a brief instant challenge. The challenge was a take off on a classic puzzle called the farmer, the fox, the chicken, and the corn. The farmer has to cross a river in a row boat. There is only enough room in the row boat for him and one other item (the fox, the chicken, or the corn). If the farmer leaves the fox and chicken alone the fox will eat the chicken, if he leaves the chicken and the corn alone with chicken will eat the corn. How can the farmer get everything across the river? This is a fun little challenge, label some pieces of paper and see if you can figure it out. After a couple of small hints we finally figured it out.
Next week we will work a lot on our egg contraption but I will also bring an instant challenge along. We didn't have any serious discussions about a main challenge selection for the season, we probably won't get too deep into that until after the egg event.
I took a couple of pictures (see link below) of the newly formed team.
That is all for this week,
Mr. H
|
| ASDI |
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
